Greed – That Thing That Divides Families

GREED -

THAT THING THAT

DIVIDES FAMILIES

Bill Carlisle, Jr.

© 2006 Bill Carlisle, Jr.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 3/15/2006

ISBN: 978-1-4208-8765-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-7215-1 (ebk)

Contents

CHAPTER ONE 

CHAPTER TWO 

CHAPTER THREE 

CHAPTER FOUR 

CHAPTER FIVE 

CHAPTER SIX 

CHAPTER SEVEN 

CHAPTER EIGHT 

CHAPTER NINE 

CHAPTER TEN 

CHAPTER ELEVEN 

CHAPTER TWELVE 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 

CHAPTER NINETEEN 

CHAPTER TWENTY 

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 

CHAPTER THIRTY 

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE 

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO 

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE 

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX 

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN 

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT 

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE 

CHAPTER FORTY 

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE 

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO 

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE 

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR 

GREED: A RAPACIOUS DESIRE FOR MORE THAN ONE NEEDS OR DESERVES, AS OF FOOD, WEALTH, OR POWER; AVARICE.

CHAPTER ONE 

This is a true story about my family, and how greed consumed a family member to the point of stealing $50,000.00, leaving the state with a younger totally disabled sister, and possibly living off of my late parents’ pension and social security.

You might ask the question, How can this happen? Well, I will tell you how, why, when, where and everything else. This situation has affected so many people in our society that it is almost an acceptable thing of which no one talks about until someone else mentions it.

I will start with: I am Bill Carlisle, Jr., and I was born in 1949, in Arkansas, to Bill and Eunice Carlisle. My parents were hard working, poor and had the education of Life. They loved each other so very much and I miss them more than mere words can say. (doc. 1 in appendix)

Mother and Daddy had five children, all about two years apart, starting with the oldest, Carolyn (she is the one that did that Greed Thing), then my older brother, Luther. Luther died in 1983 from a heart attack brought about by a chemical developed to defoliate the jungles of North Vietnam (Agent Orange). Luther was only 36. I miss you, brother.

Then comes me, Bill Jr., the middle child.

Then comes my younger sister Lucy. I miss you Lucy, and love you. This is the sister that our mother left everything to in her Last Will and Testament. Lucy was disabled as a child from brain cancer when she was around 13 years old.

Richard was the youngest of the five. He died as a result of a nurse giving him the wrong anesthetic during a minor out-patient surgery. He was 46 years old. I miss you, brother.

Our Dad died in 1999, in a car accident. He was 75 years old. I miss you Daddy.

Mother died in 2003 from lung cancer, something that the manufacturers of asbestos left her and my dad. I also have been diagnosed with the same thing. I miss you Mother.

This Book is dedicated to all those family members who have been SCREWED by another family member as well as the legal system where ever you live because, this is a nationwide problem.

I never thought I would be attempting to write anything, especially something about this subject. Please bear with me and I will try to tell this in a way that all will understand. I am not an author and have never professed to be one.

Dirt poor, is how I would describe our family. We did have a roof over our heads and a bed to sleep in. I mean poor like hand me down clothes, shoes, things like that. I would wear my older brothers clothes and shoes, and then I would pass those down to my younger brother. The same was true of my sisters too. (doc. 2 & 3 in appendix)

We played like other children, with the only toys we could make from sticks, rocks, mud-pies. We were happy, or at least I was. I never thought that I was to be hurt in a way that I will never recover from because a sister just had to have it all because she was Greedy.

My sister Carolyn had Tuberculosis as a child and had to be isolated from society for several months. Later in life she told me that she thought Mother and Daddy had given her away or abandoned her.

She is four years older than myself and I never looked at her as being older, I thought she was just a sister and family and life was simple, but she looked at life far differently than the rest of us. Carolyn was the oldest and SHE was the boss when Mother and Daddy weren’t around. I think she was bothered by the fact that she was the oldest and she didn’t want the responsibility of tending to four younger children.

We grew up in a poor neighborhood, living in a shotgun house (a house that has the front door aligned with the back door, and the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms between, with the outhouse in the back yard). The house was our home and it didn’t matter to us, the children, where we lived, ‘cause playing and having fun was, to us, all there was to life.

My older brother, Luther, was a tough person. Luther was not the type to let anyone try to take advantage of, or scare him. Luther would defend us, too. I remember one time in school, a guy called our house and wanted to date my younger sister, and when Luther found out who he was, a confrontation took place at school. Luther sent one to the hospital and seriously hurt another. Back in 1965, it wasn’t cool or accepted for a black guy to call a white family’s house and ask the parents if their disabled daughter could go out with him. After that incident, Luther left school and enlisted in the Navy. I was proud of Luther, for standing up for my sister’s honor. I am now sorry that people were injured in that situation; but, you have to understand, that was unheard of in Arkansas, back then.

Luther, while in the Navy during Vietnam, served on a riverboat (made more noteworthy during the 2004 campaign for President – Bush verses Kerry). A riverboat is also called a SWIFTBOAT. Luther was the captain of this vessel, sprayed constantly with Agent Orange to defoliate the jungles up and down the Delta region. This exposure would later, in 1983, cause his premature death. My brother died of a massive heart attack at the age of 36. I love and miss you, Brother. (doc. 4 in appendix)

My younger sister, Lucy, was a beautiful young girl, with long, thick brown hair. When she was around the age of 12, she started having black-out spells and finally told our parents who immediately took her to a vision doctor. He told Mother and Daddy to take her that same day to a neurosurgeon. After a short exam, my sister was admitted to the hospital that same day and had emergency brain surgery the very next morning. Since that horrible day many years ago, Lucy has had various other major medical problems, such as another type of cancer, and major strokes that has left her completely disabled. Most recently, she had a brain hemorrhage since our Mother passed away. I was not allowed to go and visit her in the hospital. oc. 5 in appendix)

Lucy, was considered a miracle by her doctors, after her brain surgery. I remember Lucy’s progress over the years and going back to school and actually graduating from high school. Lucy even worked for a while with the help of a loving aunt we called Sissy. Sissy was my Dad’s older sister. Sissy worked with Lucy for all of a year until Lucy’s health got worse, and then better. Mother and Daddy went to her many doctors and they helped them to have Lucy declared totally disabled, and she has been for all these years.

Richard was the baby. We (the other children) at times thought he was spoiled rotten, but that wasn’t true. Richard was a kind of loner who didn’t socialize with others. He was unique and very different from the rest of us. When we would get a spanking for doing something we weren’t supposed to do, we would cry, but Richard wouldn’t, he would just take it and get mad. Richard and I were not close at all. He wouldn’t let anyone get close to him, and that hurt because I loved him and wanted to be a brother to him, especially after our big brother Luther died in 1983.

Richard did something one day that was so unheard of that I still to this day am hurt that he even did it. I went over to visit my parents and my dad was sitting out in the garage by himself. Daddy had a black eye, and I asked him what happened. Your brother [Richard] hit me, Daddy said.

We talked about that for a while and I was so enraged that I was just waiting on Richard to come back over. Well, Richard came back the very next day. I confronted him and told him to get outside, that I was going to teach him something. Richard was not very tall, but he was built like a tank. That didn’t matter to me. As soon as he let go of the front door knob, I hit him up beside his head. That startled him and he fell over and rolled into the front yard. I picked him up and hit him again and again until I said, Don’t ever hit Daddy, Mother, Lucy or anyone else in this family again!!!!! Richard never hit anyone again that I can recall.

In 2001, Richard died as a result of the wrong anesthetic given him by a nurse during a minor outpatient surgery. The hospital bill ($250,000.00) and his funeral costs were paid by the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission, and that was the end of his life. I love and miss you, Brother. (doc. 6 in appendix)

CHAPTER TWO 

I have so many memories of my life as a child and as a grown up, that I can’t possibly include it all. I don’t want to bore anyone, as I want this to be interesting and also educational. I DO NOT want anyone else to ever go through anything like this again. Once is more than enough.

Now, a little about myself. I have been married and divorced with no children. I am responsible for my first marriage failing. I was too young and irresponsible. My second marriage was not my fault, I was paid back for the first one. The third one was a nightmare and I should’ve been warned that I had married a GOLD DIGGER. That one cost me more than just money. Enter the last and final marriage; this time I divorced her and the whole thing could’ve been avoided if her father had never been born. We are still friends and communicate almost on a daily basis. I have not mentioned names as I want to protect their personal lives and their families’ lives.

I have worked at many jobs in my life. I worked as a pizza maker in junior high school where school friends would come and watch me make pizza through a big window. I helped build houses and learned a lot from the best carpenter I have ever known. He also lived on a street called Carpenter Drive. He was one of the best men I have ever known, next to my Dad, and Uncle Ray.

I was a Yeoman in the Navy and had a real future, if only I had stayed in and retired. Oh, the many mistakes one makes in ones’ life. I was the enlisted person in charge of the office of the Base Flight Operations Office at my last duty station in Albany, Georgia, way back in 1971.

I have done plumbing, some electrical work, home remodeling, concrete work, roofing homes or sheds that I’ve built. I have done landscaping, house painting, some auto mechanics, laid bricks and rocks. I have hung swings, installed insulation in walls in homes, hung sheetrock, laid carpet and also cleaned carpet.

I was a brakeman, switchman, conductor, and engineer on a railroad. A railroad accident ended the last job; back surgery corrected the injury.

I have done a lot of things in my life and made a lot of mistakes, who hasn’t, but did I deserve what my sister did to me?

I took karate for a year once, flew in a glider in southern California, went sky diving (that was a hoot). I went para sailing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as well as Paradise Island, Bahamas. I’ve snorkeled in the waters of Jamaica. I have owned and ridden a motorcycle, gone back to college and obtained a degree in Criminal Justice, worked in law enforcement. I taught myself to operate a computer and also was one of the first 1,000,000 people in this country to have my own website. I have lived in California, Colorado, Georgia, and also Great Britain. Oh, I also worked in the movie business in Los Angeles, Ca., as an extra. I worked in the last movie Jackie Gleason filmed before he passed away, NOTHING IN COMMON, with Tom Hanks. It’s hard to believe that I have done so many things and been so many places and met so many famous people and I end up driving a truck over the road for a living. (doc.7,a-f in appendix)

I am sitting at a truck stop in Virginia called White’s Truck Stop. I drive for a company called JB Hunt, a leader in the industry. I have worked for them for almost one year and I must admit that I do enjoy it most of the time. The Winter is not too much fun to drive something this big, but overall, it’s not that bad. The trucking industry is made up of people from all walks of life and all parts of this world we live on. There’s always a shortage of drivers as it has a hugh turnover.

Recently, I was traveling from where I am in Virginia now thru West Virginia and remembered that Martha Stewart was to be transported to the Federal Prison in Alderson, West Virginia, and she was driving to the facility about the same time I was passing the opposite direction, Exit 161 off of Interstate 64, in West Virginia.

Last I heard she was adapting well. Look how her life turned to where even she has ended up. Hang in there Martha.

I consider myself a good person who made some mistakes in life and life has a way of correcting itself only to end up making more mistakes. I am still a good person and would never hurt anyone or anything, hey, I don’t even hunt or fish.

The night is falling around me now in this roadside town in Virginia, and I will write more later on. I will in time in this attempt to write a book, tell you a story about how two grown adults are living off of my parents sweat and tears from years of work to take care of their children, for one of their own and her husband to possibly end up living off of Mother and Daddy’s financial assets, cause they’re too lazy to get a job.

Another day now and another few lines. I will have to go back to work tonight sometime to a place I won’t know until my dispatcher tells me over an on board computer. It is 0550 in the morning or for those of you who don’t know military time, 0550 is also 550 AM.

When I was a little boy, my older sister met this guy named Glen who swept her off her feet and they were married right away, with our parents permission. Glen worked at a place that sold cloth fabric wholesale to people that upholstered furniture. I think he worked on commission. Glen later on, worked as a manager of a McDonald’s in Little Rock, Arkansas. He later stated that if he had had a lot of money he could’ve bought the place.

Glen, was a tall skinny guy that seemed to be okay, but was like the boss of everybody at times. Glen was aggressive and a go getter and before long Carolyn was pregnant with their first daughter. They were happy and things were going right for them. They seemed to be headed in the direction that newlyweds dreamed of going.

They worked hard and of course they struggled and before long, they had another baby.

Glen, was a pool player and would tell us that he made money at it. I guess that meant that he was a gambler. Glen heard somewhere that he should go to a place in a state called Montana, and learn to be an Auctioneer. I thought it was cool to be able to go to a place like that.

Mother and Daddy struggled each day to take care of the children that were still at home. Lucy was trying to recover from brain surgery, and my parents were the best parents. They worked hard together and we moved from one place to a better place. Of course they had their problems as a married couple, but who doesn’t, and they were no different.

In all the years that I can remember as a child, Mother and Daddy only took us on one vacation, because Lucy kept them financially strapped, and Lucy was extremely frail after her surgery. Bless her heart, she has to this day never had a quality life one would expect but, she was happy and a champion that over came each hurdle that life put in her way. I Love and Miss You Sister and hope I get to see you before our lives are over.

I don’t know why Lucy has had the life she has had, she is the best person with a heart of gold. To end up with Carolyn and Glen and others in another state, taken out of a home that was left to her with furniture and a new car and plenty of money to last the rest of her life.

My parents were struggling in debt from all the medical bills from Lucy’s many surgeries and they didn’t let us know any of it, but I knew something was wrong, cause Mother cried a lot and they always had a worried look about them.

Church was a big part of our lives and I really enjoyed going. It was a Baptist Church and there were other children just like me that were happy and liked to play and enjoyed life. That church was the place where I had my first crush on a beautiful girl who had blond hair and the bluest eyes. Later on in that church I couldn’t understand where the preacher went. He left his wife with another woman in the church who was also married and moved to California. The young girl I had a crush on also left at the same time, cause it was her mother who left with the preacher. I have often wondered what ever happened to her.

I couldn’t understand why the preacher did what he did, when he told us that that sort of thing was wrong and sinful. I actually felt betrayed by him and was totally confused. I was baptized by him in that church and all the things he told us that was wrong and sinful. From that point on I strayed from religion but, never forgot Gods words. I know that I am a saved sinner because I still believe that He is my Lord and Saviour. Even to this day when I hear someone use the Lords name in vain, I always ask God to forgive them. I don’t know if that will help them or not but, I still say it under my breath.

My brothers and sisters and I were kinda skinny cause we were lacking in vitamin C, and Mother and Daddy bought us a milk dispenser like you find at a restaurant. We filled out and developed like most other children. I actually had muscles and started lifting weights to continue to build myself up. I started running in track and field. Pole vaulting was my favorite sport back then and I was actually good at it. One year at the state championship, I finished fourth in the state in that event.

I didn’t date or have girl friends cause I think the girls knew I was poor. I acted like it didn’t matter but, it really did. Oh, I did have crushes on girls but, I didn’t date. It wasn’t Mother or Daddy’s fault that we were poor, it was, I guess, fate that turned on our family. They struggled up until the day they died to provide for their children. They believed in God and never never lost faith. I Miss You Very Very Much Mother and Daddy.

Glen and Carolyn continued to do better and better and had one last child, another girl, no boys. Of course they struggled but, not like our parents did. Glen learned how to Auction while he was in the state of Montana and when he came back to Arkansas, people came from all over the state to his auctions. He started out selling what would be considered junk, and later he would sell antiques. I would eventually start working for him and now, I wish that had never happened. I believe that I was 16 years old when I started working for Glen, and tried to do my very best.

Glen was a greedy person and wanted everything he could get, especially money and women. I went with Glen once to the St. Louis, Missouri area to buy furniture to take back home to sell thru his auction. I slept in his old pickup truck while Glen went inside to visit a woman for several hours, and when he had finished, he came back to the truck and opened the door, which awakened me and asked if I would like him to arrange for me to have a prostitute for awhile. I couldn’t believe my ears as I heard this come out of his mouth. I politely declined. I was scared and confused that he would put me in this situation. I never forgot that and never will.

Later that day after buying things and loading them on his truck, I asked Glen if I could buy a couple of small things and sell them thru his auction. Glen said that it was his truck, his company and his space and that I could not do that. I said that I wanted a little extra money and he refused saying that he needed all that he could get. That is when I realized how greedy he was. I told him then that I quit and he could load everything himself, drive back by himself and unload it by himself. I took a taxi from where I was to the airport in the area and flew back to Arkansas. I never cared for him much after that. I saw his true colors, so to speak.

Glen used people like he used that prostitute that night back in St. Louis. It was great until he got what he wanted from you and then that was it. I am glad I did what I did that day.

Later on a few months from then, my sister (his wife) asked me if I would drive with her to some place in Tennessee, Cookeville, I think was the town, to collect her husband (Glen). He had left my sister for another woman and wanted to come back to her. Of course, I helped. That lasted for awhile until he found another woman, and just like before, she took him back. I loved my sister back then and didn’t understand why she put up with him. When I did that in my own life, my wife divorced me and pre-warned me that that would be the outcome if I ever did that. Well, I got what I deserved, but with Glen and Carolyn, it still continues to this day, after 45 years of marriage to each other.

Glen, was a hustler from the get-go. He had a wife, three daughters and a thriving auction business, that was almost the envy of others in that locale. Whatever he or his wife or daughters wanted, they got. Clothes, furniture, cars, boats, dining out whenever and wherever they wanted. It seemed like the sky was the limit with him. My Mother and Dad, loaned him some money once during that point in time to buy a home right next door to them. They got the home and it was eventually furnished to the hilt.

CHAPTER THREE 

My parents had always struggled with bills and costs associated with my younger sister Lucy’s medical condition, but they still were able to do well enough, as my Dad and Mother found good paying jobs with union companies. God was looking after them, because they were good and faithful servants until the end of their lives.

Daddy was having a particularly hard time with his finances after helping Glen and Carolyn buy the home next door, and asked Glen if he would buy or sell thru his auction a complete spray set, with hoses, spray cannisters, ladders and even the compressor. Glen, said that he didn’t auction things like that thru his auction, but that he would try and help Daddy out by taking it off his hands for a couple hundred dollars. Glen earned in excess of $100,000.00, that year and couldn’t help my parents out any more than a couple hundred dollars. What a SKIN FLINT. Glen kept, and used those things he bought from my Dad that day, and a few years later he told me he sold it all for about $500.00.

Several years had passed and Glen and Carolyn had to file bankruptcy, because they spent more than they made. After the filing of bankruptcy, they had an auction where a banker bought something for his home. Glen and Carolyn befriended him and his wife. It wasn’t long after that, that Glen and Carolyn had bought an expensive piece of property and adjoining home. The vacant property was leveled and a new 50’ x 150’ building was built complete with bathroom, office and canteen. This banker had truly been useful to Glen and Carolyn. They used their acquaintances for their own benefit. Now, they were about at the pinnacle of success within their own industry, and they were buying whatever they wanted. They sent their daughters to a private school. That banker was their gold mine and they would eventually use up their welcome with him, just like they had with so many others.

Glen and Carolyn, joined a local church and Glen became a deacon. Boy, what a joke that was. They set out to get rid of the pastor who had been with that church for more than 25 years, bless his old sweet heart. Glen had something to do with the offerings taken up during the services. He quickly learned who each person was in the church and how much each was worth, or at least as close to that as he could. He and my sister played these new found friends like fine pianos. I remember on occasion my sister would tell me how much property a certain person had and how much they were worth. (I didn’t have a clue what they were doing).

Their oldest daughter married a nice young guy and they had a son and later a daughter. The husband would end up working for Glen. Oh, what a mistake that was! It wouldn’t take long for Glen to totally manipulate almost everything for Glens’ benefit. Glen can cry at the drop of a hat when confronted with a situation that warrants it, like when caught with other women, etc.. GREED should’ve been his middle name. I guess, by now you have gathered that I don’t care for Glen? I don’t care for his wife either (my own sister)!

In 1983, the year my older brother Luther died, I was summoned to the hospital and told he was gone from a massive heart-attack. I was married to that Gold-Digger I mentioned. Well, Glen tried to control everything because that was the way he was, a manipulator. Mother and Daddy were in shock and disbelief as was the rest of us. I remember calling the place my Mother worked and telling her that she needed to come to the hospital because Luther had gotten ill at work and had to go to the hospital. Mother said she would be right there. I asked a kind nurse to please have a sedative ready, because Mother would take the news extremely hard. Well, hard, was an understatement. Mother, grieved at his loss until her own death. She said that it wasn’t right that a child should die before a parent. (doc. 8 in appendix)

Luther was buried with full military honors, and the Department of the Navy presented Mother with the folded U.S. Flag that draped his coffin.

She jumped when they fired the twenty-one gun salute. I go and visit my brother occasionally at the National Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas, I also visit my younger brother there as well. You see, Richard died in 2001. Richard, was one of the last veterans to be buried at that cemetery as they ran out of room and built a new one in North Little Rock, Arkansas. (doc. 9 in appendix)

As I had mentioned earlier, I have had several jobs